baggage
/ˈbæɡɪd͡ʒ/ noun
Forms baggages
- noun (uncountable) Portable cases, large bags, and similar equipment for manually carrying, pushing, or pulling personal items while traveling “Please put your baggage in the trunk.”
- noun (uncountable, informal) Factors, especially psychological ones, which interfere with a person's ability to function effectively. “This person has got a lot of emotional baggage.”
- noun (obsolete, countable, derogatory) A woman. A female, especially one who is saucy, impudent.
- noun (military, countable (obsolete) and uncountable) An army's portable equipment; its baggage train.
Synonyms
Etymology
From Middle English bagage, from Old French bagage, baguage, from bague (“bundle, sack”), of Germanic/North Germanic origin, probably from the same ultimate source as Old Norse baggi (“pack, bundle”). Compare also bag. By surface analysis, bag + -age. The old meaning of "nasty woman" likely derives from the sense of "something awkward to be carried" (compare faggot).
Webster’s 1913
- noun The clothes, tents, utensils, and provisions of an army.
- noun The trunks, valises, satchels, etc., which a traveler carries with him on a journey; luggage.
Etymology [F. bagage, from OF. bague bungle. In senses 6 and 7 cf. F. bagasse a prostitute. See Bag, n.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “baggage”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details